CFP: Narrative as a Way of Thinking (12/31/05; journal issue)

PARTIAL ANSWERS: JOURNAL OF LITERATURE AND THE HISTORY OF IDEAS,winner of the CELJ "Best New Journal of 2004" award,invites papers on the following subject:Narrative as a Way of Thinking

In current usage the word =93narrative=94 means either a sequence ofevents, where =93an event=94 is understood as a change from one state toanother, or as a representation of such a sequence in a visual or verbalmedium. In each of the two meanings, narrative is constructed: theselection of events and their combination in a sequence is an act ofthought, whether expressive of a conceptual stance or developing andadjusting one in the process.

A literary narrative, fictional or non-fictional, can beregarded not merely as an expression, promulgation, or even testing ofpre-existing ideas, but as a laboratory for ideas, a channel forthinking. It can constitute a cognitive scheme or a philosophicalprocess =97 rather than merely apply pre-paid end results ofphilosophical thinking.

Partial Answers is interested in papers that study fictionalor non-fictional narratives with the purpose of tracing the emergence ofideas from (or along with) the deployment of events -- papers that dealwith

--- the types of segments of reality that may evade traditionalconceptual analysis and call for a narrative way of intellectualization;

--- the relationship between specific narrative forms and thesegments of reality that the author seeks to construct, orconceptualize, or otherwise come to terms with; --- the ways in which narrative mediates between orderedconceptual structures and contingent actualities that confront them; --- the philosophical significance of narrative techniques; --- the ways in which narrative creates conditions for the processof ideation in reader response; --- the ethics of narrative form; --- narrative self-reflection, self-correction, andself-refutation; --- dialogic form and narrative polyphony as a stage for theinteraction of conflicting ideas or incommensurable concepts; --- narrative and =93negative capability.

In order to be included in Partial Answers 4/2, articles must reach theeditorial office by December 31, 2005.

At the same time, the editorial board extends a continuingwelcome to papers on other subjects in the interdisciplinary field ofliterature and the history of ideas, in particular to articlesassociated with two of the previously announced rubrics, =93Literatureand the Ideas of Space,=94 and =93The Cultural Other.=94 Furtherinformation is available on http://partialanswers.huji.ac.il.